Background and contents: On the occasion of several letters, concerned with the word 'faynights',[note 1] having been published in Sunday Times, Iona and Peter Opie sent a letter to the newspaper, explaining the use of the word (published on 25 November 1951). Tolkien read their letter, and wrote a long letter in reply, discussing the etymology of 'faynights'. He wrote that he read their letter "today, just as I had been puzzling over a curious Chaucer usage" apparently connected with the issue.[1]. In their work The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, Iona and Peter Opie quoted from Tolkien's letter, that states, amongst other things, that the terms 'fains I', 'fains' and 'fainites' are survivals of medieval English from the 14th Century.[2]